Monday, 30 April 2012

Daily Cycling Facts 30.04.12

La Flèche Wallonne was held on this day in 1955, the nineteenth edition of the race. It covered 220km between Charleroi and Liège for the fifth consecutive year and was won for a second time by Stan Ockers, who had also won in 1953 - the following day, he won Liège-Bastogne-Liège and as such became the second man to win the Ardennes Double, Ferdy Kübler having done so in 1951 and 1952.

David Stone, who has cerebral palsy, was born in Birmingham on this day in 1981. He has won a total of seven gold, two silver and two bronze medals at the World Paracycling Championships and two gold medals at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing.

2007 Road Race World Champion Marta Bastianelli was born in Velletri, Italy on this day in 1987. In 2008, she failed an anti-doping control that discovered traces of flenfluramine, a stimulant sometimes found in dieting aids before it was connected to heart problems and was banned for a year. She appealed the ban and hoped to get it was overturned, but the Court for Arbitration in Sport found in favour of the UCI's counter-appeal and increased her ban to two years after discovering that she had taken pills containing the drug without good medical reason and against the advice of her team's doctor. She has now returned to competition and races with MCipollini-Giambenini. Bastianelli finished in seventh place for Stage 2 at the 2012 Tour of Qatar.

Léon Flameng in the white jersey. In black:
Paul Masson,who narrowly beat Flameng in
the 10km at the 1896 Olympics

Léon Flameng was born in France on this day in 1877 and competed in the 333m, 2km, 10km and 100km cycle races at the Olympics in 1896, the first modern Games - and he won the 100km.

Jamie Staff, who was born in Ashford, Great Britain on this day in 1973, started to race BMX when he was nine and then became World Champion in 1996. In 2001, he decided that his next ambition was to win an Olympic gold medal and, as BMX was not then an Olympic sport, chose to chase his dream in track cycling - which he turned out to also be rather good at, winning three UCI World Championships before getting his Olympic gold in 2008. Since retiring in 2010, he has lived in the USA where he managers the national sprint team and plans to set up a British Cycling Academy based in Kent, near his hometown.

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